Picture Book #11 The Upside Down Boy

 

Author: Juan Felipe Herrera

Title: The Upside Down Boy

Illustrator: Elizabeth Gomez

Readability: 2.9

Genre: Picture Book

Subgenre: Realistic Fiction

Theme: With time in patience you will find your place

Primary and Secondary Characters: Mama, Papi, Ms. Sampson, Amanda, Ms. Andasola, Juan(ito)
Award(s) and date of publication: 2000

Publishing Company: Children's Books Press

ISBN number: 0-89239-162-6

Summary and how the book will be used with students:
 This book is about a boy named Juan who moved from the mountains to Mrs. Andasola's house to go to school in the city. Juan could not believe that he was beginning to start a new life in a new place as the seasons began to change. When he arrived to school there was no one in the hallways and no one on the playground. When he arrived to his classroom and sat down at his desk he stuck his nose in his brown paper bag and the students laughed. Juan felt so out of place. When the school bell rung for the first time Juan ate his lunch instead of going to recess. He had to ask his new friend Amanda what was recess. When he was supposed to go to lunch he went to the baseball field to play. He felt so upside down doing everything opposite of then the rest of his classmates. He finally found what he was good at when it came to music class. Once Juan was introduce to music the transition to school became easier. He found his niche, he even conducted the choir for the class performance at open house.

This would be a great book for teachers to use when talking about different cultures or for ELL students because the book is written in Spanish and English. Teachers could connect this to writing by having students write about a time when they felt out of place or when they had to have help or help someone transition to a new place. Teachers could even teach students how to count in Spanish as well.

Picture Book #10 The Field Beyond The Outfield

Author: Mark Teague

Title: The Field Beyond The Outfield

Illustrator: Mark Teague

Readability Score: 2.8

Genre: Picture Book

SubGenre: Fantasy and Realistic

Theme: Everyone will have their time to shine, in their own light and way.
Award(s) and date of Publication: 1992

Publishing Company: Scholastic

ISBN: 0-4439-81215

Summary and how it can be used in the classroom

This is story about a boy named Ludlow Grebe who had complained about monsters that lived in his closet and the sharks that swam around outside when it rained to his parents. Therefore his parents thought it would be a great idea to make him play a sport to get Ludlow mind of the scary things happening around him. His parents signed him up to play baseball. Ludlow loved playing baseball and he put all his time and energy in to studying the game. When Ludlow was finally asked to play in the outfield he was ready. Ludlow said a good ballplayer was already to play in the game. The coach and players told him to play far back in the outfield until Ludlow was almost in the weeds. He was so far back that he was in another baseball field one that was filled with monsters. Since Ludlow was a good baseball player he watched as they played until he was flown to the batters mound. When he stepped up he swung and made a home run. Everyone cheered and then returned to his own game, after the game his parents said he would get more playing time next time. Only if they really knew he did get some playing time, after that day he did not complain about the monsters he was just ready for the next day to begin, because a good ball player is always ready.

Teachers could use this book to introduce their students into fantasy literature. Even have children talk about times they had daydream about being in a different place other then the place they were when they were day dreaming.

Picture Book #9 The Man Who Tricked a Ghost

Author: Laurence Yep

Title: The Man Who Tricked a Ghost

Illustrator: Isadore Seltzer

Readability: 4.9

Genre: Picture Book

SubGenre: Fantasy, Diversity

Theme: Do not trust everything you hear and see

Primary & Secondary Characters: Sung, his friend, and a ghost

Award(s) and date of Publication: 1993

Publishing company: Bridgewater Books

ISBN: 0-8167-3030- X

Summary and How I would use it in the classroom.

A brave young man named Sung was not afraid of anything because he said they were all created from the same thing therefore they are cousins. One day he went and visited his good friend until night fall. His friend tried to convience him to stay because people who walk through the forest a night usually disappear. Of course Sung being so brave decided that he was still going to walk through the night as he walked through the night he actually ran into the warrior who was actually the ghost. Sung then tricked the ghost to thinking he was a ghost, he then aquired all the ghost secrets, and even found out what he was afraid of. After finding out this information he used against the ghost and once they made it into the town he had the ghost captured.

This would be a great book for teachers to use to talk about conflict and resoultion. Teachers could have students write about if they were Sung how would they have tricked the ghost differently, who they have spat on him earlier, or would they have told early he was actually sung.

Picture Book #8 Seven Blind Mice (Caldecott Award Winner)

Author: Ed Young

Title: Seven Blind Mice

Illustrator: Ed Young 

Readability: 3.3

Genre: Picture Book

SubGenre: Traditional

Theme: Everyone has a piece of the big picture, you just have to figure out what piece you have.

Primary & Secondary Characters: Seven mice (red, yellow, blue, purple, green,  orange, and white) an Elephant

Award(s) and date of Publication: Caldecott Winner, 1992

Publishing company: Philomel Books

ISBN: 0-399-2261-8

Summary and How I would use it in the classroom.

This book is like an old Indian Fable retold and Illustrated by Ed Young. These seven mice discovers that their is something in their pond and set out to figure out what this something. The first mouse says that it was a pillar in the pond, the second mouse said it was a snake, the third mouse said it was spear, the fourth mouse said it was a cliff, the fifth mouse said it was a fan, and the sixth mouth said it was a rope. On the seventh day the last mouse, the white mouse, put it all together on the last day. He went back and forth, side to side, and found out that the something was an elephant.

This book would be great to use in Kindergarten and first grade classroom. Every time a mouse goes to find out what the something is it on a particular day and a different color mouse. It would be a great idea for students to make something and place it in a box and have students touch the creation and write a sentence for each guess. Students could also write about time they had to work with someone else to find a solution to a problem.

Picture Book #7 Hondo & Fabian (Caldecott Award Winner)

 

 

Author: Paul McCarty

Title: Hondo & Fabian

Illustrator: Paul McCarty

Readability: 1.4 Interest Level PreK

Genre: Picture Book

Subgenre: Fiction

Theme: 

Primary and Secondary Characters: Hondo, Fabian, Fred
Award(s) and publication date: Caldecott Honor Book 2003, 2002

Publishing Company:

ISBN number: 9780312367473  

Summary and how the book will be used with students:

 Hondo and Fabian is a very simple picture book. It tells the story of a dog and a cat and what they do during the day. Fabian stays at home to play with the baby, while Hondo goes to the beach with his friend Fred. They both enjoy their day, eat, and then goes to sleep.

I would use this book in my classroom for my students to explore their imagination. I would ask them to give more detail about what went own during Hondo and Fabian's day. We could also use their activities as party of the math lessons for the week and use the simple sentence in the book during Language Arts class.

Picture Book #6 The Lemonade Club

 

Author: Patricia Polacco

Title:  The Lemonade Club

Illustrator:

Readability; Fifth Grade

Genre: Picture Book

Subgenre: Realistic Fiction

Theme: Friendship and courage.

Primary and Secondary Characters: Traci, Marilyn, and Miss Wichelman
Award(s) and year published:2007

Publishing Company: Philomel Books

ISBN number:978-0-399-24540-4

Summary and how the book will be used with students:

This story is about two best friends named Marilyn and Traci, who go to school together and then begins to realize that their close dear friend is becoming skinny, does not eat as much anymore, and begins to wear a head scarf to school each day. Before this was found out Traci and Marilyn always hung out together, Traci loved to hear Marilyn play the piano. Traci did not know what she wanted to do but she new she wanted to help people.  They were both in the fifth grade together in Miss Wichelman's class. Miss Wichelman always taught them when life gives you a lemon or two just add water and sugar and you will have lemonade. 

A few weeks later Traci was informed by Mairlyn's mom that she had leukemia. Miss Wichelman informed the class the next day, the class sat back and stared because they did not what to say or do. Traci visited Mairlyn everyday, she was there when she started chemo and her hair began to fall. One day Miss Wichelman stopped by to check on Mairlyn, she was really down in spirit thinking she would never playy piano again. Miss Wichelman told Mairlyn she had to get better so she could attend her wedding and she wanted her to wear yellow dress and they were going to make lemonade out of lemons. Just when she thought she was depressed andalone she found out not just her friends was there to help her fight her battle with leuikema but her whole fifth grade class. When she retuned back to class everyone had on hats just like her. Most importantly they shaved their heads just like her. Even Miss Wichelman shaved her head. Later that day Miss Wichelman told Mairlyn that she too knew how she felt because she had breast cancer. A few months later she was married and there the girls were in their yellow dress ready to make some delicious lemonade


This would be a great book to use in the classroom to introduce sickness and how to deal with it in the classroom. This book could also be used to help talk about strong friendship bounds or be used while talking about different character traits. I think it would be great to use lemons and lemonade as the center of a math lesson as well. I could also take lemons and write different adjectives own it and make lemonade with good adjectives and bad showing that it all taste the same, just depends on how you look at it.

Picture Book #2 The Blacker the Berry (Coretta Scott-King)

Author: Joyce Carol Thomas

Title; The Blacker the Berry

Illustrator: Floyd Cooper

Readabilty Score: Kindergarten through Second grade

Genre: Picture Book

Subgenre: Poems

Theme: Although ones skin can be different shades everyone has something that makes them precular and im portant

Primary and secondary characters: Young African American girls with different skin completions

Award(s) and date of publication: Corretta Scott-King Award Winner, New York Public Library's "Hundred Titles For Reading and Sharing", ALA Notable Children's Book, Kirkus Review Best Children's Book, Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice. Copyright 2008

Publishing company: HarperCollins

ISBN number: 978 0-06-025375

Summary and how it could be used in the classroom:
The Blacker the Berry is a poem book where young African American girls compare the color of their skin to different berries. The book is basically telling people that it really does not matter what color your skin is that your still African American and still as important as the darkest African American to the lightest. You do not have to be color struck just true to yourself because everyone is important.

This would be a great book to use to talk about how one feels about themselves in the world. Students could write a reflective poem on how the feel the world views them as well as how they view themselves.